Computer-aided techniques are known to include Computer-Aided Design or CAD, which relates to software solutions for authoring product design. Similarly, CAE is an acronym for Computer-Aided Engineering, e.g. it relates to software solutions for simulating the physical behavior of a future product. CAM stands for Computer-Aided Manufacturing and typically includes software solutions for defining manufacturing processes and operations.
A number of systems and programs are offered on the market for the design of objects (or parts) or assemblies of objects, forming a product, such as the one provided by Dassault Systé mes under the trademark CATIA. These CAD systems allow a user to construct and manipulate complex three dimensional or 3D models of objects or assemblies of objects. CAD systems thus provide a representation of modeled objects using edges or lines, in certain cases with faces. Lines or edges may be represented in various manners, e.g. non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS). These CAD systems manage parts or assemblies of parts as modeled objects, which are mostly specifications of geometry. Specifically, CAD files contain specifications, from which geometry is generated, which in turn allow for a representation to be generated. Geometry and representation may be stored in a single CAD file or multiple ones. CAD systems include graphic tools for representing the modeled objects to the designers; these tools are dedicated to the display of complex objects; the typical size of a file representing an object in a CAD system being in the magnitude of one Megabyte per part, and an assembly may comprise thousands of parts. A CAD system manages models of objects, which are stored in electronic files.
In computer-aided techniques, the graphical user interface GUI plays an important role as regards the efficiency of the technique. Most of the operations required for manipulating and/or navigating the modeled objects may be performed by the user (e.g. the designers) on the GUI. Especially, the user may create, modify, and delete the modeled objects forming the product, and also explore the product so as to comprehend how modeled objects are interrelated, e.g. via a product structure. Traditionally, these operations are carried out through dedicated menus and icons which are located on the sides of the GUI. Recently, CAD systems such as CATIA allow calling these operations nearby the representation of the product. The designer does not need anymore to move the mouse towards menus and icons. Operations are thus available within reach of the mouse. In addition, the operations behave semantically: for a given operation selected by the designer, the CAD system may suggest to the designer, still nearby the mouse, a set of new operations according to the former selected operation that the designer is likely to select.
Until recent years, some computer software used, for example in automotive and aerospace industry, are based on geometry, for mechanical engineers to be able to see their work in space or in a three-dimensional displaying.
In this domain, computer softwares like CATIA, allow design geometry in a three dimension space. Such menu and toolbars contain a set of user-selectable icons, each icon being associated with one or more operations or functions. Some of these icons are associated with software tools, adapted for editing and/or working on a 3D geometrical modeled product or parts of product such as that displayed in the graphical user interfaces GUI. In the following description, terms “product”, “part”, “assembly” and the like may be referred to as “part” for the sake of simplicity. The concept of “part” can also be generalized to that of “object”. An object encompasses any constituent of the final digital mock-up, for instance, considering an assembly, an object of this assembly can be a sub-assembly, a part, a kinematic joint, a material, the embedded software executed on an Electronic Control Unit (ECU), or any object needed to describe the entire environment of the assembly, like the modeling of the atmosphere in the case you want to study an airplane flying capacities.
It is known, in dynamic simulations, a user interface can set initial conditions with a panel wherein values must be entered numerically, for example in computer softwares like dymola, as illustrated on FIG. 1.
Setting initial conditions by numerical inputs is a pain, because, in this case, it is necessary to enter three arguments in a vector for an initial speed of rotation for example. Such a task is long and tedious. A mistake can easily be done and correction requires attention.
When the user enters an initial condition related to a rotation, for example a position (angle), rotation speed or acceleration, it is necessary to define numerical inputs in an oriented system. To describe such a rotation, the system commonly used are based on yaw, pitch and roll angles, Euler angles, or Euler angles in a different order. Such a mathematical sophistication is quite complex.